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Questions Still Not Answered

It has been more than two months since Martins Ferry Board of Education members voted to place district Treasurer Karen Blake on paid administrative leave. Taxpayers still have not been told why that occurred.

Meanwhile, she continues to draw a salary of nearly $90,000 a year, according to the rate she was being paid last year. And, at $40 an hour, the board is paying an interim treasurer under a contract with the Eastern Ohio Educational Service Center. The temporary person, Dana Garrison, works about two days a week.

During a meeting last week, board members went into a session closed to the public, spending more than two hours there in a discussion of personnel matters. Blake reportedly was the subject of part of that meeting.

Whatever the reason for her being placed on administrative leave, it appears there was little or no dissention about it. Board members voted unanimously to take the action.

After it occurred during the board’s July 12 meeting, school Superindent Jim Fogle was asked about Blake. “I’m not commenting on it. There’s nothing I need to say at this point,” he told a reporter.

It is not unusual for public officials to be tight-lipped in such situations. Very often, they are advised by attorneys that the less said, the better.

At some point, something has to be said, however. Taxpayers have a right to know what situation prompted board members to vote unanimously to place Blake on leave — and why she remains on the school district’s payroll.

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